Greece 2030: one in three cars will be electric

Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources Secretary General Alexandra Suduku announces impressive growth in electric vehicle sales in the first four months of 2021 and ambitious national targets.

When Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis ushered in the era of “Green Mobility” in Gazi in June 2020, the government set a very high bar for the country’s transition to sustainable electric transport.

Nearly a year later, electric transport is challenging the pandemic, and citizens have embraced a vision of promoting zero-emission mobility that would improve air quality and life while gradually renewing an aging car fleet.

In 2020, 2,135 EVs were sold, up from 490 in 2019, representing 2.6% of the market share, while the ministry’s plans for 2020 were 1% or 1,350 EVs!

The impressive shift towards cleaner vehicles continues this year, with electric vehicle registrations hitting 5.4% in the first four months, while early estimates show the 2021 target of 3,795 vehicles will be met.

The new law provides significant financial and tax incentives for the purchase of electric vehicles, motorcycles and bicycles to make them more affordable for the average household and companies. Our country is now among the only eight EU countries that provide full incentives for the use and purchase of electric vehicles. The main incentive is the program “I am driving on electricity” (“Κινούμαι Ηλεκτρικά”), over the nine months of which 12,600 applications were submitted for electric vehicles of all types and 97% have already passed the assessment.

At the same time, we are speeding up procedures for the placement of publicly accessible charging points and the creation of the necessary infrastructure in order to cover the entire territory. We have simplified the licensing of charging points and made it mandatory to install them in new buildings, supporting the development of residential charging points as a subsidy.

At the same time, we are completing the creation of a national register of infrastructure and electricity organizations in cooperation with the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport. Our goal is to create an application that will provide real-time information about all available public charging points in the country and the cost of charging, so that the driver feels confident on the road.

However, we are still at the beginning of the road, and the road to 2030, when one in three new cars will be electric, is long. All countries are now “competing” in the policy of moving towards green urban mobility, which will be a “key” factor in achieving the European vision for climate neutrality by 2050.

Our valuable ally in this endeavor is the resources of the Recovery Fund, which will accelerate our efforts to develop an adequate charging network and create a wider manufacturing base for the electrical circuit to develop the domestic industry and create new jobs.

Electricity isn’t just about cars and sales. It is a means of creating conditions for sustainable development and protecting the health of the population. It is inconceivable that human lives are lost prematurely in our country due to air pollution. At a time when replacing a polluting vehicle with petrol and diesel fuel can reduce emissions by 2.5 million tons of CO2 per year.

…



Source link